1vs2-seed CCs & 1vs1-seed SBs we're okay to have missed

[74_75_78_79_]

1978 Steelers vs Rams instead of Dallas in the Super Bowl would probably not have been nearly as good as what Super Bowl XIII was, and I doubt it would have been as good as Super Bowl XiV. The Rams were the top seed in the NFC due to defeating the Cowboys early in the season, but as the year went on it was clear that was a fluke as the Cowboys were in fact a much stronger team.

I agree with the not being as good as either XIII or XIV but I would imagine it still would have gotten quite enough pre-game hype just the same. Rams were a premiere team all through the '70s and they did beat Steelers during regular season and had their also '75 win over them not been final week, there may have been even more of a possible Rams win to think about going in.

Good foresight on your part with what you said about 'real SB' being Den/KC in '97 for I thought at the time GB was repeating, and didn't imagine Denver getting in considering how their regular season ended; and I did think - at the time - that KC was...a paper tiger. However I did indeed see Balt/Tenn the same way you did in '00.

I'm going to add Rams/Jags SBXXXIV. I'm sure it's an unpopular pick, especially for those who would have liked to have seen the likely aerial circus between 'Greatest Show' and Brunell/Smith/Keenan. We didn't get to see that match during regular season due to sudden scheduling quirk. And that, to me, is an example of why Jags were 14-2 that year. Still a great team, may be Coughlin's best squad, but that record was inflated by not playing a single winning team in the bunch other than...Tennessee. Plus, as they say, "styles make fights" and that contrast between Rams and Titans is what indeed made that actual SB special. Jags would have put up the points (and not all in 2nd half either but spread out) but I just don't think they would have kept up; and their O wouldn't have worn out that Rams' D by 4th Q as Titans did. Close and suspenseful enough it would have been but not as was with the actual 23-16, one-yard-shy-final-play result.

[Jeremy Crowhurst]

Super Bowls between top-seeds that never were...'95 with a bullet! Chiefs/Cowboys would certainly not have been a fun watch.

And how do we know that with any certainty?

If Rich Gannon started instead of Steve Bono, Chiefs-Cowboys XXX could have been interesting.

Gannon relieved an ineffective Bono in the AFC Divisional Round against Indy, and he almost hit Lake Dawson for a go-ahead TD with about 45 seconds left.

If they win, and Gannon gets the start the next week against the Steelers, they have a better chance to win. I also give them a decent chance to beat Dallas with Gannon. That 95 Cowboy team wasn't as great as people think it was.

Even if they lose, though, you have to think that Gannon is the man moving forward, and there is no Elvis Grbac two years later. I wonder how things would have been for KC in the early-00's with Gannon at QB, Schottenheimer as coach (maybe he doesn't quit with a SB trip), and Derrick Thomas living (if he thinks better of going out that day).

The Chiefs got to 13 wins by beating up on the dregs of the league. I mean, it wasn't quite 1972 Dolphins dregs, but they only played one team that had more than 9 wins, and lost handily.

I don't know if things would have been any different with Gannon. Gannon wasn't Gannon yet, he was just a guy who had gotten average results with a way above average receiving corps in Minnesota, and now had one of the worst receiving corps in the league in Kansas City.

[Jay Z]

1978 Steelers vs Rams instead of Dallas in the Super Bowl would probably not have been nearly as good as what Super Bowl XIII was, and I doubt it would have been as good as Super Bowl XiV. The Rams were the top seed in the NFC due to defeating the Cowboys early in the season, but as the year went on it was clear that was a fluke as the Cowboys were in fact a much stronger team.

By the same token, the next year Steelers Rams were going to be better than a threequel of Steelers Cowboys. The Steelers were going to win again, and it wasn't going to be as interesting as the first two. Buccaneers at Cowboys for the NFC Championship game would have been worse than Rams at Bucs as well.

I wouldn't need to see the Vikings squeak out the Cowboys in 1975, beat the Rams in Minnesota in the NFC Championship again, and get their butts kicked by the Steelers in the Super Bowl again.

Rams at Cowboys for 1977 NFC Championship wasn't going to be worse than Vikings at Cowboys, but it wasn't going to be better. May as well finish off Knox in LA for good.

[SixtiesFan]

1978 Steelers vs Rams instead of Dallas in the Super Bowl would probably not have been nearly as good as what Super Bowl XIII was, and I doubt it would have been as good as Super Bowl XiV. The Rams were the top seed in the NFC due to defeating the Cowboys early in the season, but as the year went on it was clear that was a fluke as the Cowboys were in fact a much stronger team.

By the same token, the next year Steelers Rams were going to be better than a threequel of Steelers Cowboys. The Steelers were going to win again, and it wasn't going to be as interesting as the first two. Buccaneers at Cowboys for the NFC Championship game would have been worse than Rams at Bucs as well.

I wouldn't need to see the Vikings squeak out the Cowboys in 1975, beat the Rams in Minnesota in the NFC Championship again, and get their butts kicked by the Steelers in the Super Bowl again.

Rams at Cowboys for 1977 NFC Championship wasn't going to be worse than Vikings at Cowboys, but it wasn't going to be better. May as well finish off Knox in LA for good.

It may not be a coincidence that the 70's Rams made their one Super Bowl appearance under Ray Malavasi rather than Knox. I remember when Malavasi became head coach, people were surprised the Rams often threw on first down, a no-no under Chuck Knox.

[74_75_78_79_]

1978 Steelers vs Rams instead of Dallas in the Super Bowl would probably not have been nearly as good as what Super Bowl XIII was, and I doubt it would have been as good as Super Bowl XiV. The Rams were the top seed in the NFC due to defeating the Cowboys early in the season, but as the year went on it was clear that was a fluke as the Cowboys were in fact a much stronger team.

By the same token, the next year Steelers Rams were going to be better than a threequel of Steelers Cowboys. The Steelers were going to win again, and it wasn't going to be as interesting as the first two. Buccaneers at Cowboys for the NFC Championship game would have been worse than Rams at Bucs as well.

I wouldn't need to see the Vikings squeak out the Cowboys in 1975, beat the Rams in Minnesota in the NFC Championship again, and get their butts kicked by the Steelers in the Super Bowl again.

Rams at Cowboys for 1977 NFC Championship wasn't going to be worse than Vikings at Cowboys, but it wasn't going to be better. May as well finish off Knox in LA for good.

Unless you're a Viking fan in '75, of course you'd rather see Pittsburgh face a different opponent in the SB than a team they already beat convincing enough the year before. Cowboys/Steelers I'm sure was an exciting matchup to look forward to being that Dallas already experienced winning-it-all four years prior as well as beating Pittsburgh during the '72 regular season. Landry was already established rep-wise having led Big D to their 10th straight winning-season (9 of them playoff berths). I'm sure there were enough fans out there thinking Dallas would win which they almost did.

And after Steelers beat Dallas again in XIII, most 'neutral' NFL fans would have had an "anything but Steelers/Cowboys" attitude going into the '79 post-season, especially being that the 'Burgh toppled Big D again, 14-3, in 'SBXIII 1/2'. What made 'Thrilla in Manilla', Ali/Norton III, and Celtics/Lakers '87 was that they were...rubberband matches. Not many want to see a 3-in-row between two teams, however great both are, in which one won each of the first two. I wish we'd have ourselves a 'rubberband' SB between two teams - all three games within a short enough time period (more-or-less the same players/coaches).

Rams were just what the Dr ordered in '79 despite the 9-7 outing. A premiere team all through the '70s, never played Steelers yet in a Bowl yet alone in a Bowl at all, their DC 'might' have known...'a thing-or-two' about them, and Rams did beat them twice the year prior (a guy named Warren QB-ing one of those games). Again, anything but 'Steelers/Cowboys'. Chargers/Cowboys (the two top-seeds themselves) would have been better to look forward to; or Oilers/Rams, Chargers/Bucs, etc.

[CSKreager]

Dolphins/Bengals 1981 AFC CG

If Fouts and Air Coryell couldn't get going in the Freezer Bowl, Woodstrock and a Miami offense that was all run and no pass (outside of Nat Morgan) by comparison doesn't even reach the endzone.

[74_75_78_79_]

Dolphins/Bengals 1981 AFC CG

If Fouts and Air Coryell couldn't get going in the Freezer Bowl, Woodstrock and a Miami offense that was all run and no pass (outside of Nat Morgan) by comparison doesn't even reach the endzone.

Yeah, not sure there were all too many 'screaming' for a Mia/Cin AFCC going into the playoffs. Despite just barely getting in, Air Coryell, Fouts & Co now entering into their 3rd-straight post-season seemed to get much more attention than...'Woodstrock'. If Dolphins would have made it more suspenseful in the 59-below windchill, I don't think it would have been by much at all.

A couple others worth a mention...Niners/Chiefs SBXXXII & Bears/Falcons '10 NFCC.

Again with da Bears...what do you all think of they at the Meadowlands in '86? Should it be on this list, the opposite, or neither? Of course I don't see that SB Shuffle, one-year-removed installment as a paper-tiger (heck their D, statistically at least, was even better) but can't help but feel a significant enough fall-off despite the one-game difference (14-2 instead of 15-1). Buddy's departure clearly no help, took a bit of that swagger away. Maybe I'm wrong to think, but even with a healthy McMahon I just didn't feel that possible matchup being a "must see". That Giants team ARRIVED (49-3 vs Niners in the divisional). They were playing with authority.

[7DnBrnc53]

1982 and 1985: Dolphins vs. Raiders at the Coliseum

I really don't think the Fins win either of those games. The 1982 Fins lucked out when they drew SD instead of Pittsburgh in Round 2, and when the rain came for the AFC Title. As for the 85 Fins, they should have or could have lost a few that year that they won (@Denver, NE, NYJ, TB). You could tell that the wheels were starting to come off.

1987: Bears vs. 49ers at Candlestick

That year, SF blew their doors off on a MNF. I don't think Chicago does much better the second time around.

[BD Sullivan]

Dolphins/Bengals 1981 AFC CG

If Fouts and Air Coryell couldn't get going in the Freezer Bowl, Woodstrock and a Miami offense that was all run and no pass (outside of Nat Morgan) by comparison doesn't even reach the endzone.

Yeah, not sure there were all too many 'screaming' for a Mia/Cin AFCC going into the playoffs. Despite just barely getting in, Air Coryell, Fouts & Co now entering into their 3rd-straight post-season seemed to get much more attention

San Diego had looked like they would slaughter the Dolphins with their early 24-0 lead.

[CSKreager]

Unpopular one: 1984 NFC CG, Redskins/49ers rematch